Gatrell credits Wakefield with instigating the abolition of public execution. But, according the Gatrell, this was the first time that English society contemplated the body of a child swinging from a noose and thought: “is this how civilised societies should behave”?īell was made to be different, by no lesser figure than British politician and Australian colonial pioneer Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

And he wasn’t the first, or even the youngest child to be hanged in England. He had deliberately murdered a younger boy for money. The passing of what had been a popular source of entertainment began with the hanging of 14-year old John Amy Bird Bell.

In The Hanging Tree, historian Vic Gatrell examines why English public executions ended in 1868. The fate of youth is a potent rhetorical device. Intractable as those predicaments are, there’s reason for hope. Meaningful action against the prevalence of firearms, and the circumstances that make people feel as if they need them, would surely stand as a satisfying legacy for Obama’s second term. And it echoed Obama’s controlled rage as he spoke alongside grieving Newtown parents, after Congress refused to pass stricter gun control laws.

It’s a thoughtful coda to the “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” address of March last year. Striking as it was, the speech was not entirely unexpected. The trio adeptly explained why the George Zimmerman acquittal has sparked outrage, without directly criticising the verdict. American commentators have lauded its seamless fusion of different voices: “a president, an African-American, and…a former law professor”, all acquainted with the vulnerability of black youth, spoke as one. Barack Obama’s “Trayvon Martin could have been me” speech has been heralded as a political landmark.

The Hanging Tree by Vic Gatrell